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http://www.noripcord.com/rss.xml en Music Review: EELS - Being Dead http://www.noripcord.com/reviews/music/being-dead/eels

Just like garage rock experienced a renaissance in the late '00s, Austin duo Being Dead revitalize the genre's most notable signifiers with hardly any competition in sight. Filled with frisky self-confidence, Falcon Bitch and Shmoofy—note the absurd names—bolt through sixteen terse, inventive tracks as they dryly switch and harmonize vocals. That back-and-forth dynamic isn't just an element of their sound, it's practically essential, to the extent that it's unfathomable to imagine each performing them solo.

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The return of Christopher Owens, after seven years away, seems to have slipped under the radar of many. At the time of writing, I’ve only seen a couple of reviews online.

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This article was originally published on my new music newsletter, The Perfect Prescription. I wanted to share it here not (just) as a shameless plug, but because I thought it was a fun meeting of two very different worlds that might appeal to a wider audience. If you enjoy the article, please do consider subscribing to The Perfect Prescription for more of the same. -- David Coleman, No Ripcord Founder

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Doing business as phoneswithchords, Nashville based song constructor/composer Arthur Alligood makes a sonic breakthrough on his third album in as many years. Though Alligood may wear his sunny 60’s pop influences on his sleeves, he nails his references. Not unlike the spot the sample wonder of Panda Bear/Sonic Boom’s Reset of a few years back, Alligood’s shifts of pace over the course of The Speed of Time keep things bubbling along quite nicely.

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David Pajo’s creative life as M seemed as prone to mutation as the music he’d composed, his work embracing the harmonic delicateness and emotive clarity that he had a hand in developing during his time with Slint, sensibilities that were later carried into the many iterations of this single-letter solo persona.

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When Enumclaw's debut LP, Save the Baby, first burst into the scene, it signaled a young Washington band embracing their hometown state's music history with their '90s-indebted sound. And while noisier aspects of their sound point to a heavier sonic imprint, it's always been lead singer-songwriter/guitarist Aramis Johnson's goal, who once cited Oasis and Drake as influences, to write hook-driven anthems. And, to a large degree, his raw, heart-on-sleeve sentiments are easy to connect or empathize with.

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Looking back can often feel like a fruitless endeavor, if only because there is fear in bringing back the things we left behind. For Dimitri Giannopoulos, Horse Jumper of Love frontperson, it was a necessity. Amid unearthing old material for what became Disaster Trick, the Boston slowcore trio's fifth album, Giannopoulos simultaneously approached his past with a new gaze, acknowledging that there is growth in admitting where he might've failed. Little did he expect that considering a different way of thinking would provide the clarity he sought.

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Every St. Vincent album had brought with it a new persona. There was the housewife on pills from Strange Mercy, the future cult leader of her self-titled, and the 70s queen of all-nighters from Daddy’s Home. Through these archetypes, she revealed herself to her audience, often metaphorically, but clearly enough to create an emotional connection. On All Born Screaming, though, we’re getting Annie Clark. No costumes, no guises, just her for the first time in over 15 years.

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Clocking in at over 40 minutes and with 13 songs, Caleb Cordes’ latest is, if anything, wide-ranging. Going from the low-key bossanova beats of the opening Doesn’t Matter to the bashed-out alt-rock leanings of Country Mile, Cordes also tackles a myriad of topics. The most recurring, and hardest to juggle, is the struggle with late-stage capitalism. But the more personal reflections on friendship (Window Blue) and internal battles (Attack) more than balance that out.

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Upon first glance, Good Looks frontperson Tyler Jordan stays committed to writing observations straight from the heartland. That conviction fuels Jordan's colorful songwriting on their second LP, which might inevitably compare to the crop of young indie rockers expressing similar concerns. But he has every right to follow a similar path, and his narratives resonate with an authenticity that seems impossible to fake.

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The critical success of Indications frontman Durand Jones' self-titled album last year proved two things. Firstly, there's still an appetite for finely-crafted soul music and secondly, people have been sleeping on Aaron Frazer. Frazer is also part of the Indications line-up (he plays drums and occasionally provides vocals) but while Jones' solo work doesn't stray too far from the template set out by his band, Frazer sounds more like a heartthrob from the era of doo-wop.

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While much has changed since post-punk outfit Ought inspired plenty of bands to form in the early to mid-2010s, they've also gone through a reinvention of their own. Now into their second release as Cola, former members Tim Darcy and Ben Stidworthy have gradually found their footing, which they've been plotting even before officially disbanding their origin project. Their debut album, Deep in View, showed signs of how they'd refine their knotty, wiry arrangements, but it ultimately didn't hit the same highs of Ought's more snarky and exploratory side.

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It’s been a few years since it feels like Elbow has really wowed its audience with new material. While it had some beautiful moments, their last album, Flying Dream 1, felt like they were slowly waking down the path to the musical retirement home known as “adult alternative.” But it turns out that was a case of pandemic malaise. The group has come roaring back with their most exciting work since The Seldom Seen Kid. 

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